Scientists say a touch-and-go landing by NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft on an asteroid last month revealed new insights into the formation of loose rocks that can cover the surfaces of many smaller planets – materials that are more like playground ball pits than solids. Bedrock.
The formation of the outer layer of the planet is evident in the imagery adopted by the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft, which crashed into the inner airspace more than 200 million miles (330 million kilometers) from Earth on October 20.
The next day, NASA released an image from a narrow-angle camera aimed at the spacecraft’s 11-foot-long (3.4-meter) robotic arm. A dinner plate-size sample collection device at the end of the hand, while the spacecraft was touching the surface of the ecliptic planet, one-third of the diameter of the eclipse planet, fired a bottle of compressed nitrogen gas.
The dissolution of nitrogen gas helped to push the planet’s samples into the storage chamber. After six seconds on the surface of the asteroid, OSIRIIIIRIX – fired the thrusters to retreat from Bennu.
Scientists later obtained images close to the head of the sample collection, showing that it penetrated the planet’s surface with scooped material. Some planetary particles were seen escaping from the storage chamber, prompting administrators to place the spacecraft earlier than expected from the Earth’s return capsule to return to Earth, so that the samples could be reduced.
The sample device was sealed inside the return capsule 28 inside of the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft.
Last weekend, officials released a second series of images taken during the spacecraft’s touch and landing. This was captured by a wide-angle navigation camera on the OSIRIS-REx.
According to the OSIRIS-Rex science team, over a period of about three hours, navigation camera – or Navacam – images were captured. The sequence begins around an hour after OSIRIIRIS-Rex maneuvered an orbital departure to begin its descent, and about two minutes after the rear of the spacecraft burned, officials said.
OSIRIS-REX points to the site of the target sample on an area called Benning, “Nottingale,” which receives the sampling arm, as a slug, w or rotation, maneuver appears in the center of the picture sequence.
“As the spacecraft approaches the site Nightingale, the shadow of the sample arm is noticed at the bottom of the frame. Soon, the sampled head impacts the site Nightingale (outside the top of the camera field view) and fires a nitrogen gas bottle, which collects a significant amount of sampling site material, ”the OSIRIS-Rex team wrote in a statement.
“After several seconds, the spacecraft back-burns and the shadow of the sample hand appears against the material of the interrupted surface. The team continues to investigate why dark areas appear in the upper and middle parts of the frame, ”the team wrote. “The upper area may be the edge of frustration created by the sample hand, from the surface. Strong shadow by the material being painted or some combination of both.
“Similarly, the medium dark field that appears on the bottom left of the first image may be frustrated by one of the spacecraft thrusters, a shadow by loft material, or a combination of both.”
The Lahid Kahid Martin-built OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft relies on black-and-white navigation camera images to automatically guide you to a safe touchdown zone on Bennu. Navigation algorithms have compared images of the camera with maps preloaded into the spacecraft’s computer, which helps determine its location relative to the OSRIS-Rex asteroid.
With its specimen secured in a return capsule, OSIRIS-Rex is set to move closer to the asteroid Bennu next year to begin its journey to Earth. The spacecraft will release a return capsule on September 24, 2023 for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and landing in the Utah Test and Training Range.
NASA’s La 1 Billion Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer mission was launched on September 8, 2016 aboard the United Alliance Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral. The primary goal of OSIRIS-Rex is to return samples of the planet Earth for detailed analysis by scientists who hope to uncover clues about the origin of the solar system.
OSIRIS-Rex required a mission to collect at least 60 grams, or 2.1 ounces, of asteroid material. Scientists said before Oct. 20 that the spacecraft could collect a lot and go to touch and land, and evidence suggests it may be spying on planetary samples weighing 2.2 pounds or 1 kilogram, said Arizona, chief investigator of the university’s mission.
Data from a short contact on the asteroid indicated that the spacecraft’s robotic arm sank 19 inches (48 centimeters) into the soft surface of Bennu.
The scientific payment of the mission will wait until the planet’s samples return to Earth, while Latta said on Thursday that scientists are already learning about Bennu’s physical characteristics.
As soon as the spacecraft reached the planet in December 2018, it discovered small particles flying from Bennu. Those particles look similar to the flaky material protruding from the head of TAGSAM.
“It looks like a bunch of cornflakes in space,” Lauretta said. “And they move around in random motion. They are coming from the TAGSAM head for the most part, but they are colliding with each other. They are spinning and messing. We can solve many of them.
“So it’s a nice imaging calibration data to better understand the events of particle ejection and the invasion of particles we observed during the entire encounter with the planet,” said Le So Retta. “Even though my heart was broken for losing the sample, it turned out to be a great science experiment.”
OSIRIS-Rex’s contact with the asteroid surface on October 20 also provided a rich dataset, suggesting that the planet’s outer layer of soil and low-density rocks do not have much unity. The OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft’s robotic arm is touching the planet, reaching only 0.2 miles per centimeter or 10 centimeters per second, one tenth of the normal walking speed.
“When the head of the TSGs approached the regolith, it flowed away like a liquid,” said Retta. “And I think what would happen to an astronaut if she had to try to walk on the surface of the planet. She sinks to her knees or ernda – depending on how loose the ground is – until you hit a big boulder or some kind of bedrock. “
He said the “ground truth” data collected by OSIRIIRIS-Rex would help scientists re-examine planetary geology models.
“It’s interesting that there was very little resistance to spacecraft from the planet’s surface,” Lauretta said. “Basically, it’s like a ball pit in a child’s playground. You make a leap and you sink.
“Luckily, we had those back-down thrusters to reverse the direction of motion, or we might have flown all the way through asteroids,” Lauretta joked.
The new measurements of the asteroid density of OSIRIIRIS-REX will help scientists assess the risks posed by Bennu to Earth. Scientists have calculated a 1-in-2,700 probability that Bennu could strike Earth in the late 2100s.
Most of the planet could burn because of its porosity in the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Thermal analysis indicates that many of the materials on the surface of Bennu – especially the large black hummocky stones that are the main component of the surface – have material properties that cannot survive the passage into the atmosphere,” Lauretta said. . “They will crumble, and a lot of stuff will be lost.”
This means that the ancient specimens collected from Bennu are unlike any meteorite or planetary fragments that have fallen to Earth and are intact on the surface.
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